Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy

Gelli, Matilde; Tiribilli, Bruno; Salam, Faiza Abdul; Vassalli, Massimo; Basso, Michele

doi:10.3390/s25030860

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Open AccessArticle

Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy

by

Matilde Gelli

^1,*

,

Bruno Tiribilli

²

,

Faiza Abdul Salam

³

,

Massimo Vassalli

³

and

Michele Basso

¹

Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy

²

Institute for Complex Systems, National Research Council (ISC-CNR), 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy

³

James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sensors 2025, 25(3), 860; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25030860

Submission received: 22 December 2024 / Revised: 23 January 2025 / Accepted: 28 January 2025 / Published: 31 January 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems and Micro-Electro-Optical- Mechanical Systems in Scanning Probe Microscopy)

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Abstract

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is an advanced imaging technique which features nanoscale resolution and the ability to work under physiological conditions on soft samples. Modern AFM systems offer easy access to Dynamic Mode imaging which reduces the tip–sample interaction and increases the effective resolution. However, the intrinsic nature of this driving strategy induces a trade-off between three different aspects: the scanning speed, an accurate topography reconstruction and weak interaction forces. The impact of this inherent trade-off is especially evident when imaging samples with steep and deep valleys, and artifacts are often created in the reconstructed topography. This phenomenon, known as parachuting, rapidly worsens at faster speeds. In this paper, a new strategy is proposed for limiting parachuting artifacts, based on an adaptive driving strategy, which can be easily implemented as an add-on to commercial AFM systems. The suggested method has been tested on grid samples, and it enhances the nano-imaging quality by effectively reducing artifacts in the topography.

Keywords: Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscope; parachuting artifacts; adaptive cantilever excitation

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MDPI and ACS Style

Gelli, M.; Tiribilli, B.; Salam, F.A.; Vassalli, M.; Basso, M. Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy. Sensors 2025, 25, 860. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25030860

AMA Style

Gelli M, Tiribilli B, Salam FA, Vassalli M, Basso M. Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy. Sensors. 2025; 25(3):860. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25030860

Chicago/Turabian Style

Gelli, Matilde, Bruno Tiribilli, Faiza Abdul Salam, Massimo Vassalli, and Michele Basso. 2025. "Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy" Sensors 25, no. 3: 860. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25030860

APA Style

Gelli, M., Tiribilli, B., Salam, F. A., Vassalli, M., & Basso, M. (2025). Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy. Sensors, 25(3), 860. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25030860

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Adaptive Drive as a Control Strategy for Fast Scanning in Dynamic Mode Atomic Force Microscopy

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